There's more to Belgium than just... (Part Two)

Today the overview of "unknown" destinations in Belgium continues with Wallonia, the southern French-speaking part of the country. This is the lesser-known region as far as international tourism is concerned, so there were lots of places to choose from! Here are a few highlights:

Bouillon: in the far south of the country, along the French border, this small town is in a beautiful setting along the River Semois. It is known both for its natural environment (lots of hiking and kayaking nearby) and for its Chateau de Bouillon, once owned by Godfry of Bouillon, the leader of the First Crusade to Jerusalem. Parts of it are over 1000 years old, and it is widely considered to be Belgium's finest feudal castle. (See picture #1, courtesy of Wikipedia - you can see some of the Chateau on the hill in the background)

Dinant: this is another town with a beautiful setting, this time located along the River Meuse in central Wallonia. As you'll see from the photos, the town center is sandwiched between the river and a 100-meter cliff, topped by a fortress called the Citadel. Its skyline is also dominated by the large Notre Dame Cathedral. Boat cruises and kayaking are both available along the river from Spring through Fall. From what I've read it can get pretty crowded in Summer, but based on the photos I can certainly see why! (See pictures #2 and #3, courtesy of Wikipedia and Trabel)

Spa: as its name betrays, this was Europe's original "health resort", and the name spa has been used to describe such places ever since. Its hot springs have been well known since the 14th century, and in its 18th and 19th century heyday it was the place to be among the wealthy and influential people of the day. It's a pretty town set in the hills of the Ardenne in the east of Wallonia, and in addition to the hot springs and spas, it also hosts the annual Formula One Belgian Grand Prix. (See picture #4 courtesy of Trabel)

So there you have it, a little 15 minute tour of some places in Belgium you probably haven't heard of before. Hope you enjoyed reading - who knew such a little country could pack so much variety?!

There's more to Belgium than just... (Part One)

If you're like I was a year ago, you probably know of a few places in Belgium such as Brussels, Antwerp and maybe Bruges or Ghent, but not much else. Belgium is a small country and isn't as well known as some of its neighbors, but since we've been here we've learned that there are a lot of really neat places in this country that we'd never even heard of. So far we haven't traveled too widely, and so we only know some of these places based on reading about them or seeing them on a map. We do hope to do a little more in-country traveling as Spring arrives and we finish the marathon training (it's time consuming!), so hopefully we'll soon be able to provide firsthand trip reports on some of these destinations. In the meantime I'll give you a preview, today focusing on the lesser-known parts of Flanders (in the north), and tomorrow on Wallonia (the south).

Most of the Belgian cities you've probably heard of are in Flanders, so there aren't as many "undiscovered" places in this region as you'll find in the south. Still, there are some places that are decidedly off the beaten path. Here's a few:

Mechelen: it's about halfway between Brussels and Antwerp, and despite significant damage during both World Wars, its cathedral, palace and other architectural gems were largely preserved. It's also in the heart of the asparagus growing region, and many gourmets consider its "fat white" variety to be the best anywhere. (See picture #1, courtesy of Wikipedia)

Belgian coastal villages: we've been to De Haan, one of the quaint seaside villages, but there are numerous towns of varying size and atmosphere. There's a tram that runs almost the entire 65km of coastline and stops in nearly every town. This is a great way of getting around, and I've heard that riding the tram and hopping on and off along the way can be a nice daytrip. (See my post from October 9th, 2007 for pictures of De Haan)

Ypres: this city is unfortunately best known for being utterly destroyed in World War I. Over 300,000 Allied soldiers died here as well, so it's a somber place, as illustrated by the numerous monuments, cemetaries and the famous poem In Flanders Fields (there is also a museum of the same name). The town was rebuilt in accordance with its original design, so despite being relatively "new", it has managed to recreate much of its original charm. (See pictures #2 and #3, courtesy of Trabel and Wikipedia, of the rebuilt old town and the Menin Gate memorial)

Ik kan een beetje Nederlands spreken!!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post...we've settled back into our usual routine and there just hasn't been too much happening lately. Oh, but there is one exception! I finally finished my first Dutch course and passed the exam with no problems, but for now I've decided to put my Dutch learning on hold. It was a tough decision because I really enjoy the language and was doing well with it, but I think it's for the best as it will allow me to focus more of my efforts on learning French. I may pick it up again in a month or two depending on how things go, but we'll see!

In the meantime, French studies have picked up again, Carl's classes are in full swing, marathon training is continuing to progress (there's a 13 mile run on the agenda this weekend - yikes!), and we are doing great over here in the the "Old World"!

Burrito night at Casa de Ervin

A lot of people said they enjoyed the post about our $27 burritos at Pablo's last Fall, and I think pretty much everyone agreed with my statement that from then on we'd stick to making our own Tex-Mex at home. Well, I've decided to show you what a typical dinner at our own personal "burrito joint" looks like, as well as what it costs.

The picture shows you what it looks like - it's a lot of food, but good stuff! We each had two small fajita burritos with rice, beans and cheese, and tonight the choice of meat was beef. It was marinated in a tomato and jalapeno salsa that our friends sent us (thanks a bunch Tim & Erica!), and the cheese is cheddar that we grated ourselves (no Monterey Jack to be found here). The rice, believe it or not, is Uncle Ben's 2-minute microwaveable Mexican rice, and it's really pretty good! Finally, we sometime splurge for the refried beans they sell in the international section of our grocery store, but they're absurdely expensive - close to €4 for one can! Instead, we usually settle for dark kidney beans - a little odd, but we haven't found any black or pinto beans, and they actually aren't too bad with it. Here's what it all costs...

Beef: €3.50 - $5.25

Beans: €.64 - $.96

Rice: €1.68 - $2.52

Tortillas: €1.73 - $2.59

Cheese: €1.33 - $1.99

Pepper & onion: €.50 - $.75

Salsa: free!

Grand total for the whole meal: €9.37, or $14.06. Not as cheap as it would be in the States of course, because the rice, cheese and tortillas are all imported, but way better than Pablo could ever manage. Boy, they must be RAKING in the profits at that place!!

Amsterdam trip report

Well our holiday season travel itinerary is finally completed, and we're kind of glad! It's great to be able to travel so easily throughout Europe and we're making the most of the opportunity to see as much as possible, but it does get tiring, and I must say we're happy to spend the rest of January right here at home in Brussels!

We had a nice time in Amsterdam - it's a very cozy, attractive city with canals, gabled buildings and people everywhere riding bicycles. Even in the rainy weather we had for the first half of our visit, there were still a number of hard-core residents riding around on their bikes, hoods pulled tight and eyes half-closed against the raindrops...impressive!

As far as sights, we visited the Anne Frank museum, which was very well done and quite moving. How a young, vibrant teenager like herself (plus seven others) managed to cope with being cooped up in such a small place for more than two years is beyond me. The fact that they were only months away from surviving the war in hiding, and when she died she was only about a month away from liberation, was just so sad. Anyway, it was a place I'd wanted to visit for a long time, so despite it being a bit sobering I was glad we made it there.

We also took the obligatory canal cruise which was nice, though I found the one in Ghent to be both prettier and more personalized (meaning a smaller boat and the guide speaking directly to you, where here it was a recording and the captain hardly spoke to us at all). Most of the canals in Amsterdam also have cars parked along the edge, and some had sunken boats in them, so I just found them to be a bit less "photogenic" than the canals in Ghent, where pedestrian walkways or the edges of buildings line the canals. The water was clean though, and the canal cruise is still a great way to see the city from a different vantage point. As I mentioned a while back, we haven't done the canal cruise in Bruges yet, but we'll have to get back there and take one this Spring and see what we think of that.

Finally, the infamous Red Light district. Even if sex, drugs and booze aren't your thing, it's a sight to behold. It's seedy, raunchy, and a "sinner's paradise", but you have to see it for yourself...oh, and the people-watching is serious entertainment in and of itself! I've heard that Brussels, Antwerp and other cities have their own smaller districts, but this is the grandaddy of them all, and if you're in Amsterdam, you've got to at least wander the streets for an hour or two and see what all the fuss is about!

One last comment on Amsterdam: we were impressed by the variety of cuisine available there, particularly in the dining district known as Liedseplein, which was conveniently right around the corner from our hotel. On just one block of this street you can find restaurants featuring the cuisine of places as diverse as Spain, Uruguay, Indonesia, Japan and India. The choices were dizzying, but we were in the mood for tapas, so we ended up at a the Spanish restaurant (it was good by the way, and unlike some tapas places, a lot of food for the money). We also had a really tasty "pancake" breakfast, which I would definitely recommend! I used quotes when I said pancakes because the Dutch version is different; thinner, less "cakey" and with a seriously wide variety of available toppings! One thing is for sure, we definitely had no problem eating and drinking well in this city!

Picture #1: Carl in front of the Royal Palace in Dam Square (pronounced "dahm")

Pictures #2-3: Shots taken from the canal cruise; note the substantial "lean" of a few of the buildings in #3; that's a result of settling of the very soft ground the city is built upon

Picture #4: Canal shot taken from a bridge

Picture #5: the Prinsengracht canal - our hotel was along the right side of the picture, about 2/3 of the way down

Another trip - whew!!

I forgot to mention this previously, but before we departed for Rome we decided to plan another short trip ahead of the start of Carl's second school term, and to celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary (wow, has it been that long?), which is on Monday. So tomorrow morning we board a train for Amsterdam for a two night stay, returning Sunday morning. Not a long trip, but it should be a nice introduction to the city and a last hurrah before we settle back into the routine of classes, marathon training, etc. So have a great weekend, and look out for another trip report Sunday night or Monday! :-)

Oh, and unfortunately due to the time I've been spending helping Carl review the final drafts of his papers and preparing for my Dutch class exam (yes, I actually have to pass an exam), I haven't had time to get the Rome photos on the internet yet. Looks like it'll be next week now before that happens - sorry!

Rome trip report and photo preview

**Note: if you've already read this post, have another look at the description of photo #1. To keep things interesting, I decided to make an actual competition out of "Where in Rome were Carl & Jen on New Year's Eve?". I'm not looking for the exact name of the place, just an accurate general description of it. Post your guesses as comments in the post, and whoever guesses it right first is the winner. Here's one hint to get things started: we were NOT at an ancient site.

We're baaaack!! Okay, so I know I promised that I was going to do some posts and upload photos while we were in Rome (really I WAS!), but it didn't quite work out as I'd planned. First, I forgot the adapter I need to connect my camera and computer, so there was no way to upload the photos...duh (making a big "L" symbol on my head)!! Second, our B&B host didn't have wifi, just a hardline internet connection, and although he was willing to let us disconnect his PC and connect our laptops, we couldn't get the connection to work. I was going to do a quick post using his computer, but without any photos I just didn't think it would be all that entertaining for anyone. Anyway, enough excuses, let's get to the good stuff!

The trip was great, and it was the perfect amount of time to see all that we wanted to see in Rome, while still leaving time to relax and also take a few daytrips. The weather was not as warm as we had hoped for, but several times I considered how miserable it would be to hike through so many outdoor sights in the summer heat and humidity - that thought alone quelled most of the complaints! We had two rainy days, but out of eight days total that's not too bad either. The one unfortunate thing was that I came down with a cold partway through the trip, and a day later got either a stomach bug or mild food poisoning. Neither one knocked me down too severely, but sadly our worst day health- and weather-wise was the day we went to Pompei, which I had really been looking forward to! Still, we did have a really good time, so let me tell you more about it!

Rome
Rome is an incredible city, absolutely crammed with things to see almost everywhere you look. We're both history buffs, so this place was an absolute treasure trove! It's also a bit noisy and run down, but after several days we came to the realization that that's a big part of its charm. Anyway, here's a quick summary of what we saw:

Ancient Rome Sights
Colosseum
Forum
Palatine Hill
Trajan's Forum
Pantheon
Churches
St. Peter's Basilica
Sistine Chapel
Santa Maria Sopra Minverva
St. Peter-in-Chains
Santa Maria della Vittoria
Museums
National Museum of Rome
Vatican Museum
Other Sights
Trevi Fountain
Spanish Steps
Piazza Navona
too many other Piazza's and neat neighborhoods to mention!

Our top highlights were the Colosseum and Forum, dinner in Trastevere (the best dinner we had in Rome by far!), St. Peter's Basilica (I'd recommend seeing it last so the other churches don't disappoint!), and the Scavi (Excavations) tour below St. Peter's. This tour was pretty amazing; you have to book it well in advance as they strictly limit the number of visitors allowed, but it's well worth the trouble. It takes you directly underneath the basilica, where you can see excavated mausoleums belonging to Roman families that pre-date both the basilica and Christianity, along with the tomb of St. Peter and the various memorial structures built over it in the last 19 centuries. The progression of history that you can see in such a small (and important) space is really quite incredible.

Orvieto
Orvieto is a small hill town at the southern edge of the Umbria region. It has a gorgeous cathedral and medieval center, and stunning views into the surrounding valley about 1,000 feet below. The train drops you off in the modern town at the base of the hill, and you then take a funicular (hillside train) straight up the hill into the old town. In addition to the cathedral and view, it's also known for ceramics and its clasico wine variety, both of which we were able to partake in - meaning we bought a piece of pottery and tasted the wine! It was quite chilly the day we were there, but despite that we really enjoyed our visit and the chance to see a bit of Italy's wine country.

Pompei
This place needs no introduction - it's simply incredible. I may be a bit biased because I've been wanting to go there since I first read about it as a child, but I think anyone would agree that it is THE place to go if you want to see the best preserved evidence that exists of daily life in an Ancient Roman town. Not even lousy weather, a cold and an upset stomach could ruin it for me!
A sidenote about this trip: some of you may have seen the recent coverage of riots in Naples over the tons of trash that have accumulated in the streets. Well it's not exaggerated! We took a train to Naples and then switched to the local commuter train "Circumvesuviana" to get to Pompei. Even from the train windows we could see piles of it in many of the residential streets. It's a very sad situation that I frankly have trouble understanding, but I guess inefficiency, corruption and the mafia have such an influence there that this has been an ongoing issue for some time.

Anyway, we're tired and ready to spend some quiet days and nights at home, but we had a lot of fun and we really feel that we can now confidently say we've "done" Rome!

Here's a few photos to "whet your appetite", but due to the sheer number that I took I plan to upload them onto a photosharing website and will add the link to a subsequent post. That will take me a few days since I'll need to add captions (so you know what you're looking at), so in the meantime you'll see:

1- Two "happy" Americans in Rome on New Year's Eve - the first person who can guess where we were wins a box of Belgian chocolates! Oh, but Carl's sister and my brother are ineligible, because they already know! :-)
2- Two "cold" Americans in the Colosseum on a rather chilly day!
3- St. Peter's Square with the basilica in the background
4- The Duomo in Orvieto
5- The theatre in Pompei, with the gladiator barracks and courtyard in the background